Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, (born Dec. 23, 1722, Turinge, Sweden—died Aug. 19, 1765, Säter) Swedish mineralogist and chemist noted for his work on the chemistry of metallic elements and for his efforts to establish a new mineralogical system. He is also credited with developing an experimental procedure involving the systematic use of blowpipes for analyzing the chemical composition of minerals.

Cronstedt was the first to isolate nickel (1751). He also made a detailed analysis of calcium tungstate, a previously unknown mineral of high specific gravity, and studied the properties of gypsum and a hydrous mineral he named zeolite. Such experiments revealed certain laws governing the internal structure of minerals and enabled him to establish a distinction between simple minerals and rock minerals, which are composed of a mixture of several minerals.

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...slaglike material. They considered it bewitched and ascribed it to the devil, “Old Nick.” Thus, it became known as kupfernickel (Old Nick’s copper). It was from this ore, studied by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, that nickel was isolated and recognized as a new element in 1751. In 1776 it was established that pai-t’ung, now called nickel-silver, was composed of copper, nickel,...

...industrial applications. Elemental nickel very sparingly occurs together with iron in terrestrial and meteoric deposits. The metal was isolated (1751) by a Swedish chemist and mineralogist, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who prepared an impure sample from an ore containing niccolite (nickel arsenide). Earlier, an ore of this same type was called Kupfernickel after “Old Nick”...